Notices by Brewster Kahle (brewsterkahle@mastodon.archive.org)

Thank you, Carla Hayden for serving as the Librarian of Congress of the United States.

An important role well done.

Corn vs Solar Panels: no contest:

"31 hectares of corn ethanol ... produce the same amount of energy generated by one hectare of land covered in solar panels."

so corn is < 1% efficient?

https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/new-study-compares-growing-corn-for-energy-to-solar-production-its-no-contest/

US threatening Wikipedia’s non-profit status over 3rd party content?

I stand by Wikipedia
Brewster Kahle, Founder Digital Librarian Internet Archive

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/04/25/wikipedia-nonprofit-ed-martin-letter/ (paywall)

https://www.theverge.com/news/656720/ed-martin-dc-attorney-wikipedia-nonprofit-threat

https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-prosecutor-threatens-wikipedia

have french magazines always been fabulous?

just scanned from University of Illinois Chicago collection:

https://archive.org/details/la-revue-theatrale_1902-10_1_1/page/2/mode/2up

"Record labels attempt to bankrupt Internet Archive over grandpa's dusty old 78s"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/record-labels-attempt-to-bankrupt-internet-archive-over-grandpa-s-dusty-old-78s/ar-AA1AMiM8

eye candy-- journal just scanned

ok, pls forgive a book nerd... but I Love the positive artworks of other times.

https://archive.org/details/queensland-agricultural-journal_january-june-1946_62_contents

US Government Websites: Jan 5th, 2025.

"Georgia School Librarians Could Be Found Guilty of Lawbreaking if Shelves Carry ‘Explicit’ Material; Bill to Ban Obscene Material in Iowa Libraries Advances; & More Headlines"

Status of libraries in the US: argh. (thank you for researching, Gary Price)

https://www.infodocket.com/2025/02/26/georgia-school-librarians-could-be-found-guilty-of-lawbreaking-if-shelves-carry-explicit-material-bill-to-ban-obscene-material-in-iowa-libraries-advances-more-headlines/

Horses in UK farming 1939-1959: 850k to 130k (I had no idea the transition was so late).

Loving seeing the great publications from the CABI.org library.

https://archive.org/details/eigthnationalpow0000vari/page/3/mode/1up

"The pandemic resulted in approximately 1.7 million excess deaths among individuals aged 25 and older between 2020 and 2023"

In United States. First I have seen this number.

from
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w33465/w33465.pdf

"Index of Fungi"! -- digitizing and soon online for as much access as we can do--

for a non-specialist, I love to see the great works that have been made over the years

"Books mentioning slavery, civil rights removed from shelves at Fort Campbell schools"

“At an elementary school at Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division, librarians are hard at work scrubbing the shelves. But they aren’t scrubbing for dust. They’re scrubbing for books that contain references to slavery, the civil rights movement and anything else related to diversity, equity and inclusion,” Clarkeville Now reports.

https://web.archive.org/web/20250214041524/https://clarksvillenow.com/local/books-mentioning-slavery-civil-rights-removed-from-shelves-at-fort-campbell-schools/

Internet Archive Canada helping archive government websites and documents-- so important (we have all come to realize)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-us-medical-environmental-data-1.7457627

I just got this popup by visiting nytimes.com-- frightening.

it says it gives tracking info to 207 companies, including precise geolocation for tracking physical in-store purchases (what?).

oh, and the link to the 207 companies list ones that are absolutely frightening. I am a paying subscriber and they do to subscribers (if they innocently say yes)? is this for real?

Is this popup only because I am in Europe, and it is on monday morning at 6am? Anyone else?

FAA Key Officials

Jan 16 all positions are staffed https://web.archive.org/web/20250116202415/https://www.faa.gov/about/key_officials

Jan 29 half (9 of 18) are "Vacant"
https://web.archive.org/web/20250129122818/https://www.faa.gov/about/key_officials

(via antoine)

@modulux

Indeed, Europe is encouraging cultural heritage organizations and research organizations to do text and datamining (AI research) through regulatory clarity.

This is inspiring..

... The victory
of the litigants in the many pending lawsuits against AI companies may lead
to legal regimes that ultimately impose ruinous monetary damages, allow
the extraction of burdensome settlements, and in extreme cases result in the
court-ordered destruction of AI models themselves. All would do great harm to
the emerging market of products and services leveraging the technology."

fascinating, articulate, and worth thinking about.

"Copyright, AI, and Great Power Competition" from Foundation for American Innovation

concluding: "The legal battles around AI and copyright raise the specter that a domestic,
commercial squabble of interests might prevent the United States from
retaining its edge in the global competition around the technology. ....

important report: "Copyright, AI, and Great Power Competition" from Foundation for American Innovation

Section titles: "Getting Copyright Wrong Means Falling behind China"

"Copyright Maximalism Supports Chinese Model Developers
and the CCP’s AI Ambitions"

They write off Europe in AI presumably because of their copyright regulations.

https://www.thefai.org/posts/copyright-ai-and-great-power-competition

@phillycodehound @internetarchive

Glad you like them. So much talent. I suggest trying more of them. here is a link to a playlist of them:

https://ia800606.us.archive.org/31/items/2025-contest/2025-contest.htm

try it out!